Lawyer's murder: SGPC member's son held

Police on Sunday arrested Jaswinder Singh alias Khattu, son of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee member Ranjeet Singh, from Ludhiana on charge of involvement in the fatal shooting of lawyer Amarpreet Singh in Phase 3A.

“Jaswinder Singh alias Khattu, the son of SGPC member Ranjeet Singh was arrested from Ludhiana. He is a Class 12 passout and unemployed. He happens to be one of the main accused in the murder case and as per the complainant had even threatened the victims,' said SAS Nagar SSP Gurpreet Singh Bhullar.

Amarpreet, 32, was killed on Wednesday night and his cousin Gaganjot Singh and the latter's friend Simarjeet Singh sustained bullet injuries when a group of youths fired at them after they objected to parking of vehicles outside their house.

With the arrest of Jaswinder, police have so far netted three of the nine accused named in the FIR registered on the complaint of Manjeet Singh Sethi, a former MC councillor and uncle of the deceased.

Omkar Singh and Sunbir Singh, hailing from Amritsar, were arrested on Wednesday immediately after the crime. Sunbir Singh is the son of Dalbir Singh, one of the partners in Alpha Mall, Amritsar.

Sources revealed that Jaswinder had fled to Baddi in Himachal and was staying at his grandparents' village after the crime. Sources said that he even stayed at Nabha for a while before moving to Ludhiana, from where he was arrested.

“The accused during preliminary questioning has admitted that he had in possession an illegal .32 bore pistol procured from Uttar Pradesh,” the SSP claimed.

Bhullar said that most of the accused were either students or dropouts and all were unemployed. All the accused were known to each other and were addicted to drugs, he alleged. “Raids are on and other accused would be arrested soon. No one is above the law and we are committed to deal strictly with cases like this where students are moving around with illegal weapon,” added the SSP.

Jaswinder threatened us after firing: Sethi

Former MC councillor Manjeet Singh Sethi, uncle of the deceased and complainant in the case, alleged, “Jaswinder Singh warned us while fleeing the spot that he is the son of SGPC member Ranjeet Singh and we cannot harm him in any way.”

Sethi claimed that as he came out of the house after hearing the gunshots, he saw that Dharminder Singh fired two shots at Amarpreet Singh. Accused Rajat fired at Gaganjot Singh with a pistol while accused Sunil Bhanot alias Chhoti fired at Simarjeet Singh.